Outcast of Gor Chapter Eleven

 

It was just a single kiss, though it went on longer than expected. 

 

What? You thought I’d be all Gorean and tie Kulai’s wrists together with the ribbon and then put her to use on the soft bed of moss by the side of the stream?

 

Okay, so the illicit thought crossed my mind as something of an erotic fantasy, but she is a Free Woman. Free Women are protected by their men, and rightly so, for they are precious. 

 

But, yes, we kissed, as Kulai paid her ransom to me. For a Gorean Free Woman, she kissed remarkably well. Rolfe had always assured me that the kisses of a Gorean Free Women were nothing special, but I sensed Kulai had done this before. One of the disconcerting things about Gorean society is that you never really know how old a man or woman is. They all look so damn young, because of the stabilization serums – a society full of people who appear to be in their mid-twenties, but in actual fact they are probably much older.

 

I had pieced together enough backstory to know that Stannis and Livinnia’s children were fully grown adults now, which meant possibly thirty years since they were first Free Companioned. And if Kulai and the other huntresses had been maids of honour at the companionship, that meant Kulai could be well into her fifties by now, yet looking like she only left college four years ago. Like I said, disconcerting. I’m 33 years old, and appeared older than Kulai, but it was quite possible she was old enough to be my mother.

 

If Kulai was in her fifties it’s not really conceivable that she had no experience of men until now. Had she been Free Companioned before? The rolling nature of Free Companionships, where they have to be renewed on an annual basis or forfeited, meant that was quite possible. 

 

“You’ve obviously kissed a man before,” I said with a smile as we broke apart.

 

“Beast!” she said, laughing, as she playfully slapped my face. “You can’t say that to a Free Woman!”

 

“Well you have.” I took hold of her wrist after she had slapped me, and I brought it down to the side of her body.

 

“Perhaps. But such things are unspoken of. You are strange, Roland of Newark. You seem ignorant of our customs. How far away is Newark?”

 

“Far,” I said. “Very far.”

 

“As is Turia.”

 

“Much farther than Turia.”

 

“Kulai!” It was Mishka’s voice, calling out from the wooded thicket. She was looking for us.

 

“It seems Mishka is coming to rescue you,” I said.

 

“She is a good friend.” Kulai touched my cheek with her free hand. “She worries about me. I rode after a man, alone, in a wooded thicket.”

 

“But you are a capable huntress?” I suggested.

 

“There is that. But even so, men are resourceful at times, and often single minded in their pursuit of women.”

 

“Kulai!” Mishka called out again.

 

“She will be here in a moment,” I said. I offered her the ribbon. “Do you want to re-bind your hair?”

 

“I cannot,” she said. “Only you may bind my hair now. That is the way.”

 

“Um, why?”

 

“You really do not understand our customs, do you, Roland of Newark? You have unbound the hair of a Free Woman of Turia. She must now wear it loose, marking her as chosen.”

 

“Chosen?”

 

She smiled. “By you. It is a powerful thing to unbind a woman’s hair.” She tossed her head with pride. “I must wear my hair unbound now until you choose to bind it again with the ribbon of courtship.”

 

“The ribbon of courtship? Uh, look…”

 

“Kulai! There you are!” Mishka appeared at the top of the slope and gazed down at us both. “Oh!” She seemed surprised by what she saw, and then she smiled. “Oh,” she said again.

 

“He has unbound my hair,” said a smiling Kulai as she gazed up at her huntress sister. “He holds my ribbon of yearning.”

 

I was getting a bad feeling about this. I think my playful actions had been seriously misconstrued. 

 

The beautiful Mishka gazed at me, then back at Kulai, and then back at me. Her gaze lingered for a moment, possibly considering matters. “You must wear your hair unbound now, Kulai.”

 

“I know!” she said as she touched my arm.

 

I was getting a very bad feeling about this.

 

“Does he own a ribbon of courtship?”

 

“Probably not,” said Kulai. “He came to this camp with nothing but the tunic he wears and the slave who wears his collar.”

 

Mishka nodded in understanding. “Doubtless he did not expect to need one. I shall give him one later today.”

 

“Uh, look…” this was very awkward. There was clearly a misunderstanding here, but before I might say anything more, the male rider appeared from the thicket of trees.

 

“We should leave,” he said, sharply. He had my tharlarion trailing him from the reins in his hand. Light cavalry are at a clear disadvantage in wooded thickets where they might easily be ambushed. It’s not a good idea to linger in such terrain. 

 

“We should,” said Mishka as she pressed her mount with her knees. “Kulai, help Roland with Rashakk. It is time to go.”

 

This was going to be awkward.

 

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“It’s not funny, Rolfe.” We sat around a campfire in the cavalry camp. It was early evening.

 

“Oh, but I think it is, my friend. Very funny.”

 

Rollo and Hergessvar were laughing as well. They all thought it was funny. I was rather embarrassed by the fact we were all dining on fresh cuts of tabuk. It was my first taste of tabuk and it is delicious when roasted over an open fire. Rolfe, Rollo, and Hergessvar, very much appreciated the sweet meat, too.

 

“Delicious tabuk,” remarked Rollo.

 

“You can taste how fresh it is,” remarked Hergessvar.

 

It was a gift from Kulai and Mishka. They had walked over to our camp fire with amused smiles on their faces as they threw down a haunch and leg of tabuk. Kulai crouched down beside me and looked into my eyes as she said, “you need feeding up, beloved. A man never goes hungry when he courts a Free Woman from Turia.”

 

“A fish, too,” said Mishka as she threw it down onto the grass. It was a large river fish, like a trout, all silver scales, and it looked delicious. I could see Rollo and the other men rubbing the palms of their hands with delight. Rollo swiftly began de-scaling and filleting the fish as the girls watched. “Our thanks, lovely huntresses,” he remarked. 

 

“Bold, fierce, huntresses,” said Mishka, correcting him. 

 

Kulai touched my arm tenderly, gave me a soft smile, and then they both left, whispering quietly to one another. I thought I heard some good natured giggling.

 

“You are courting a Turian woman?” said Rollo as he choked on his paga, once they were out of earshot. “We are in for some good dinners, then.”

 

“Fuck off.”

 

“It is so romantic,” sighed Hergessavr. “Look, the three moons are high in the night sky tonight. Maybe you should walk with Kulai, holding hands, and find a fallen tree trunk where you might sit together speaking of poetry and soft things?”

 

“You can fuck off, too. I have a slave.”

 

“A slave who is in an iron belt,” remarked Rolfe. “It has been three nights now. No wonder you have been sniffing around Free Women. You must be almost as frustrated as she is.”

 

“I haven’t been sniffing around anyone. It was just a kiss. I got carried away by the moment. If I was going to go after any Free Woman, I would have gone after Mishka.”

 

“Just so long as you don’t throw yourself at my Svetlana,” remarked Rolfe.

 

“Has she spoken to you yet?”

 

“No. She continues to pretend she doesn’t know me. She has a habit of sharpening her skinning knife on a whetstone in my presence. I think she enjoys the thrill of the chase. And she now has an affectionate pet name for me.”

 

“Oh?” I said.

 

“Yes, she calls me sleen. As in, ‘what do you want, sleen’? And ‘go away sleen, I am busy sharpening my arrow heads for killing more men’.”

 

“That’s affectionate?’

 

“Of course. The sleen is Gor’s greatest hunter, and, so, coming from a huntress, that is meant as a compliment.”

 

“I see,” I said, drily. 

 

“A man needs a Free Companion,” said Hergessvar after a while. The others looked at him in surprise. “He does! She looks after him, runs his household, sees he is well fed, stops him acting rashly, and handles his affairs and finances. We can’t keep travelling forever. One day we must return to Kassau and raise a family each.”

 

“That is still a long way away,” said Rollo. “There are many slaves I have yet to fuck. Some of them may not even be slaves just yet,” he added with a laugh. “But I am a patient man. I can wait for them to find their collars.”

 

“What are you going to do, Roland?” asked Rolfe. “Nothing that will endanger our free meals, I hope?” he added with a self-satisfied smirk, as he patted his belly. 

 

“Well I’m going to have to tell her before we go. It’s the honourable thing to do. She won’t be happy, but it’s better than sneaking away in the middle of the night.”

 

“We’ll be leaving by day,” said Rolfe.

 

“It is a figure of speech.” 

 

“A word of advice,” suggested Rollo. “Ensure she does not hold a skinning knife when you tell her.”

 

“Thank you very much for making me feel even more concerned.”

 

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Kelsee positioned herself in a beautiful form of obeisance as soon as I came to see how she was. She moved gracefully, as if she had been practising this position for several hours now, under the watchful tuition of the other slaves. The chain that descended from her collar ring to the slave post jingled as she moved, and it pooled on the grass beside her lowered head.

 

“Your slave greets you, Master,” she said as she placed her forehead to the grass, open palms either side. “She begs to be found pleasing.”

 

I had caught sight of something before she had lowered herself to obeisance. Her face was beautifully made up with slave cosmetics.

 

“I gave orders that my slave is not to serve in the camp,” I said to a passing kennel guard.

 

“She won’t be serving. See, she is still chained by your padlock.”

 

“But she has been prepared with slave cosmetics?”

 

“That is her own doing. She begged to do so.” The man grinned. “I think it is for your pleasure.” And then he walked on.

 

“Kelsee?” I gazed down at her. She was very beautiful.

 

“I am your slave, Master. I beg to serve you in any way I might.”

 

I glanced at the other slaves. This had to be their doing, but none of them returned my gaze. Slaves do not stare back when a master regards them.

 

“Kimi,” I said to the girl chained beside Kelsee. I had recalled her name from before.

“We have taught her some things, Master,” said Kimi. “We thought you would be pleased. She is not so clumsy now. She desires to be found pleasing.”

 

I knelt down beside Kelsee and lifted her head. Yes, she was incredibly beautiful. The slave cosmetics made her even more so. 

 

“Have they hurt you?”

 

“No, Master, not so much,” she said. “I submitted and did as they instructed. There were some sharp uses of a stick to begin with, but then I began to learn. The switching soon stopped. I think they grew bored with teasing me.” 

 

She was incredibly desirable like this.

 

“Please Master,” she whispered softly. “It has been three days and three nights since you had me last.”

 

“I know.” I looked at the iron belt locked about her sex. She seemed hot and needy now in my presence. Slave hot, as Rolfe would say. I had the key to the belt, and I could if I wished unlock her and put her to use on the grass, but I was an Earth man and the thought of having sex with Kelsee in front of all the other slaves and the passing kennel guards was off-putting to say the least. Gorean men think nothing of pressing a girl up against a recessed street doorway, lifting her tunic up and fucking her in public, but I’m not brought up that way. I like some privacy. 

 

But I wanted her very much now. I too felt the passing of the three days and the three nights.

 

“You are so beautiful, Kelsee.”

 

She smiled and pressed her face to my shoulder. “Thank you.”

 

“And you know it, too, don’t you?”

 

“I feel beautiful,” she said. “I know men desire me like this. I feel so very feminine.”

 

“Incredibly feminine. And easily the most beautiful girl in this kennel pen,” I lied. There were in fact four girls who would probably fetch a higher price, on looks alone, but Kelsee was my girl, and she meant far more to me than any of the others. It wasn’t just a question of text book beauty. I wouldn’t have traded her for any girl on these collar chains. 

 

“You have no idea how submissive I feel right now,” she said. We were talking softly as the other girls moved around the palisade, helping one another with their makeup and the positioning of their silks. They would be serving soon, in less than an ahn. “I have literally been simmering all day.” She couldn’t stop herself from touching me. In the torch lit darkness, her soft touch felt incredible. If only we had some privacy now.

 

“I want you so much, Kelsee. This is frustrating for me, too.”

 

She kissed me. We kissed for a long time, running our hands along each other’s bodies. I felt so hard.

 

I touched her between her legs, as far as I could, pushing under the belt with two fingers, and I heard her whimper and beg piteously.

 

“Slut,” said Kimi, as she passed, but she said it in a way that wasn’t a criticism; simply an observation.

 

“Yes, Mistress,” said Kelsee, quickly. They had conditioned her these past few days to address them back, when spoken to.

 

“Kelsee, we will be leaving soon. In a day or two. Rolfe wants to move on closer to the front line where he can seek employment with a regiment. He’ll take us as far as he can, and then there will be a parting of ways. He thinks if we follow the road we will reach Corcyrus in ten or so days.”

 

“I want you so much,” she cried, not really listening to the travel plans, as I managed to slide a finger under the iron belt and into her wet sex. I began stimulating her as deep as I could go, which wasn’t as deep as she wanted, because of the proximity of the locked belt, but soon her body was quivering and shaking. 

 

“Do you want me to…” she reached her hand under my tunic to where my penis was stiff as the post she was chained to.

 

“No, just relax, just enjoy this, Kelsee.”

 

And she did. I lay her on her back and watched the marvellous expressions on her face as her quivering body was brought to a plateau of pleasure from which she then convulsed and cried out. Afterwards, she clung to me and kept repeating those words again: “I love you, I love you, Master, I love you.”

 

“Slave,” I said, kissing this lovely girl about her face and breasts.

 

“This is glorious,” she cried. “I love my collar! I love my bondage!”

 

She was overcome by the moment. She didn’t really mean any of this. She wanted to be free again. 

 

I saw Kimi smiling nearby. When she saw me look at her, she turned back to painting her lips and adjusting the silks that adorned her body. She would be serving the men in the camp soon. 

 

I lay myself down next to Kelsee and marvelled at what a vibrant world Gor was, where men could own women. “I was worried for you,” I said. 

 

“I just had to submit to the other slaves, Master,” she said. “That and do what they ordered.”

 

“That can’t have been easy for the once proud Chelsea Savannah Frick?”

 

“It wasn’t. I was one of the Heathers, remember. We were the Queen bees; Felicity, Paige, and I.”

 

“I recall you saying. You are used to girls begging to please you.”

 

“I suppose.” She kissed me softly again in the moonlight. “But things have changed now. My status and wealth on Earth means nothing here on this savage world. The Frick name counts for nothing in a kennel pen.”

 

I cupped the curve of her bottom with my hand as I ran my other hand along her body. “I suppose you regret coming to Gor now?”

 

“I should,” she said, “but I don’t.” She seemed defiant as she said those words. 

 

“Even though you wear a collar?”

 

She smiled. “Even though I wear a collar. Kiss me, Master. Please.” And so, I kissed her, deep and possessively. She squirmed to the kiss, responding with a passion that surprised me.

 

“You have been simmering these past few nights.”

 

“I have never had such a burning desire for sex before, Master. My body feels like it has been asleep all these years, and now it is awake and so sensitive to your every touch. It’s incredible. I never knew I could feel this way.”

 

“Did the girls teach you sula?”

 

“They did, Master.”

 

“Show me, my pretty little slave.”

 

And she did. She moved like rippling silk, sliding her legs from under her, lying down on her back, her hands at her sides, palms up, legs open to me.

 

“You have improved.”

Her eyes sparkled in the lantern light. “I have, haven’t I, Master.”

 

“How does this position make you feel?”

 

“Owned. The feeling is incredible. It’s not simply the position – it’s the fact that you have commanded me into this position. And the knowledge that because I wear a collar on this world, my slavery is real in a legal sense. I have never felt such feelings.”

 

I touched the iron belt that lay around her sex, shielding her from use by men.

 

“I would like to remove this from you, but there is no privacy here.” I touched her stomach and ran my fingers down to where the belt began. “She-sleen position,” I suddenly said. I wanted to see how much the former Miss Chelsea Savannah Frock had been taught these past few days. Instantly she obeyed me, rolling gracefully to her side, lifting herself up then onto all fours, kneeling with her hands flat on the grass, supporting her body weight as she raised her lovely ass to me, her head down, hair spilling loosely past her face. “Lovely,” I said, stroking her flanks and ass.

 

“Master is pleased with his girl?” she asked.

 

“So far. Now show me lesha.”

 

Now she rose up from the floor, again, so gracefully, kneeling back on the heels of her feet, her body straight, flinging her wrists behind her back, crossing them beautifully to accept binding, as she turned her head to the left, raising her chin in the process. It was incredible seeing her like this, seeing Kelsee move so supply, so slave-like. 

 

Rolfe had told me we might reach the walls of Corcyrus in just ten days. When we did, I had promised to free Kelsee from the slave collar she currently wore. But I knew enough about Gorean customs now that I understood that a metal worker would insist on locking a replacement collar around her neck before removing the old collar. That was how Goreans  did things, so that a girl might not be free of a collar, even for a single ihn.  

 

I had much to think about, it seemed.